A Short Account of the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
Of the Charter and of the Articles of Agreement with the White General Conference.
CHARTER OF THE AFRICAN CHURCH.
In pursuance of an Act, entitled an Act, to enable all the religious denominations of this State to appoint Trustees, who shall be a body corporate, for the purpose of taking care of the temporalities of their respective congregations, and for other purposes therein mentioned; passed the 6th day of April, 1784; public notice was given, in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (called Zion Church) of the city of New-York, in the state of New-York, as the aforesaid law directs: and we, the subscribers, being nominated and appointed agreeably to the aforesaid Act, Inspectors of an Election held in our place of meeting, the eighth day of September, 1800, do report and declare the following persons duly elected by a plurality of voices, to serve as Trustees for the said Church, viz., Francis Jacobs, George Collins, Thomas Sipkins, George E. Moore, George White, David Bias, Peter Williams, Thomas Cook, and William Brown; which said persons, so elected, and their successors in office, shall forever be styled and denominated The Trustees of the Corporation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of New-York.
Given under our hands and seals, this fifth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and one.
his
PETER x WILLIAMS.
mark.
FRANCIS JACOBS.
On this sixteenth day of February, 1801, before me personally came, Peter Williams and Francis Jacobs, to me known to be the persons within described, and who executed the within conveyance, who duly acknowledged the same—and there being no material erasures or inter-lineations therein, I do allow it to be recorded.
Recorded in the office of the Clerk of the city and county of New-York, in Lib. No. I, of Record of Incorporation of Religious Denominations, page 28, this ninth day of March, 1801. Examined by
ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT,
Made the sixth day of April, 1801, between the Rev. John McClaskey, in behalf of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, of the one part, and the Trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the city of New-York, of the other part, sheweth, for themselves and their successors in office:
article i.
It is provided and declared that the style and title of this Corporation shall be the "The African Methodist Episcopal Church of the city of New- York, in the state of New York," and shall consist of Francis Jacobs, George Collins, Thomas Sipkins, George E. Moore, George White, David Bias, Peter Williams, Thomas Cook and William Brown, Trustees and Members of Zion Church, and their successors, duly qualified, elected and appointed according to law (for the purposes and with the powers and privileges hereinafter granted and specified) of the Church called Zion Church, and of all and every such other church and churches as do now or hereafter shall become the property of the Corporation.
article ii.
The Corporation aforesaid and their successors for ever, do, and shall have and hold the said building called Zion Church, and all other churches which are now or shall become the property of the Corporation, in trust, for the religious use of the Ministers and Preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who are in connection with the General Conference of the said church, and likewise for our African brethren and the descendants of the African race, as hereafter specified, and also for Ministers and Teachers of our African brethren, duly licensed or ordained according to the form of discipline.
article iii.
It is provided and declared, that the rents, issues, profits and interests of the real and personal estate, of and belonging to the said Church and Trustees, and their successors, shall from time to time be applied and laid out for repairing and maintaining their said Zion Church, and all and any other place or places of public worship, lot or lots of ground, burial grounds, or buildings which now do, or at any time hereafter may or shall belong to the said Church or Trustees, as shall from time to time be thought proper and expedient, by the Trustees for the time being; and if the funds and revenues be sufficient, the Trustees may and shall be permitted, in their own discretion, to allow a reasonable and proportionable part for the support of the Ministers.
article iv.
It is provided and declared, that the said Trustees and their successors shall not, by deed or otherwise, grant, alien, convey, or otherwise dispose of any part or parcel of the estate, real or personal, in the said Corporation, vested or to be vested, or in any other way to mortgage or pledge the said real estate, for the payment of any debts by them contracted to any person or persons whatever, unless such grant, alienation and conveyance, be made by and with the consent of two-thirds of the regular male members of the said church, of at least twenty-one years of age, and one year's standing.
article v.
It is provided and declared, that none but Africans or their descendants shall be chosen as Trustees of the said African Episcopal Zion Church, and such other church or churches as may or shall hereafter become the property of this Corporation, and none shall be eligible to the office of a Trustee, but such as are received and acknowledged to be members of the said church, by the elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of New-York, who shall be appointed by the Conference of the said church, to the charge of the Methodist Society in the said city.
article vi.
All elections for Trustees for the aforesaid Zion Church, shall be by ballot of the male members, in close communion with them, or as many of them as attend, after being duly warned thereto; and no one shall have a right to vote for Trustees, until he has been a member standing in full connection, one year at least: and no person shall be chosen a Trustee of the said Corporation, until the said person shall have been a member in full connection and standing, at least two years. And no person shall be admitted into close connection with their classes, or be enrolled on their books, but Africans and descendants of the African race.
article vii.
It is provided and declared, that the Trustees aforesaid, and their successors for ever, are and shall be empowered to have, and shall have the entire direction and disposal of the temporal revenue of the aforesaid African Zion Church; and after paying the ground rent of the said church, are to apply the remainder for the benefit of the said church, as a majority of the aforesaid Trustees and their successors shall from time to time direct. And the aforesaid Trustees and their successors forever, shall have the disposal and management of the temporal concerns of the aforesaid African Methodist Episcopal Church, subject, nevertheless, to the provisions, and under the regulations made and provided in the fourth article of this instrument.
article viii.
It is declared, that the Trustees and members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, do acquiesce and accord with the rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for their church government and discipline, and with their creeds and articles of faith; and that they and their successors will continue for ever in union with the Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of New-York, subject to the government of the present Bishops and their successors, in all their ecclesiastical affairs and transactions, (except in the temporal right and property of the aforesaid Zion Church, which is to be governed as herein directed) as long as the said articles and creeds of the said chuch remain unchanged.
article ix.
It is declared, that the Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the time being, in the City of New-York, appointed as aforementioned, shall have the direction and management of the spiritual concerns of the said Zion Church, or any other church or churches which may or shall be built hereafter by the Corporation aforesaid, or by any other means become their property, agreeably to the form of discipline of the said Methodist Episcopal Church. Provided always that the said Elder shall receive no person into the African Society, but such as are previously recommended by a Trustee or Trustees of the said African Zion Church. And upon complaint being made to the said African Church or to the Elder, of any of its members having walked disorderly, they shall be dealt with according to the form of discipline: provided always, that their triers be members of their own Church, and that the member, if condemned in the first trial, have an appeal to the Trustees, Local Preachers, exhorters and class leaders of the aforesaid Zion Church. And it is further declared, that no person who may come recommended to the Elder from other societies, as a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, shall be admitted or considered as a member of the African Church, if he refuse to have his name registered in the books of the said Zion Church, after notice given him.
article x.
It is agreed and declared that the Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the city of New-York, appointed as aforesaid, shall from time to time, for ever hereafter, nominate the Preacher who shall officiate in said African Methodist Episcopal Church, and any and all other church or churches, which shall hereafter become the property of the Corporation, and shall attend to the said Church or Churches himself, to administer the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as often as he the said Elder can make it convenient. And the said Elder, for the time being, shall license to exhort and preach, any one or more of the brethren, who are or shall be members of the said church, and shall appear, to the satisfaction of the said Elder, to be adequate to the task, and to have grace and gifts proper to appear in public: Provided always, that such persons are previously recommended to him by a majority of the Trustees, local preachers, exhorters and class leaders of the aforesaid church. And if either of the said African brethren shall graduate into holy orders, it shall be done in such manner and way as the General Conference has directed. And it is provided and agreed, that the said Elder may claim, for himself and his white brethren, and shall have and possess a right to preach once on every Sunday, and once during the course of the week (and no more when there is a sufficient number of African Preachers) in any or all the houses set apart and built, or to be set apart and built, by the aforesaid Trustees or their successors, of the said African Zion Church, in the city and suburbs of New York.
article xi.
It is provided and declared, that no powers and authorities hereby given to the aforementioned Trustees, shall be understood, taken or construed in any wise to prohibit or prevent the Elder for the time being, duly authorised and appointed as aforesaid, the religious use, benefit and enjoyment of the Church known by the name of Zion Church, or of any other church or churches, which at any time hereafter may be purchased or built by the said Corporation, or in any other way become their property, in the city of New- York or the suburbs thereof; but that the same shall be and forever hereafter continue to be had, used and enjoyed by the said Elder for the time being, as heretofore; and by no other person whatever, of another denomination, unless by the particular license and consent of the Elder for the time being, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Trustees for the time being; any thing to the contrary in these articles notwithstanding.
Having given a copy of our Incorporation, and of the Articles of Agreement between us and the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, by which rules and regulations our Zion Church was governed from that time down to the year 1820, it may be necessary to state just here, that the lot of ground which was purchased by our brother, Thomas Miller, according to appointment, being found an unfit place to build the Church upon, (and the aforementioned two lots of ground having been obtained, which the Trustees accepted and agreed upon to be the place whereon to build the contemplated house of worship) it was left on his hands—and the aforesaid eighty dollars, which was paid on account of the lot, being money collected from the public, he found himself in an unpleasant situation, and that it was necessary to sell the said lot of ground, in order to regain the eighty dollars which he had paid for the same; therefore, when he had found a purchaser, he requested the trustees to take the lot of ground, and sell it according to authority vested in them by their Incorporation, which they did, and thereby relieved him from censure.